The Amazing Sony A1/A7/A9/APS-C & Anything else welcome Mega Thread!

It's not really surprising, when launching a new system it takes a while to build up steam. Could you imagine what sales would be like for Sony if their first mirrorless was the A73? Its quality is almost irrelevant in the very short term.

Seems to me like they are not building up much at moment in Japan. I think sales of Sony mirrorless have always been on an upward trend.
I am not really talking about quality since as you mentioned initial Sony mirrorless weren't all that good and worst than the first attempts from Canikon.
I wonder if Sony has got their marketing department doing a good job finally. I remember in a-mount days Sony got a lot stick for crap marketing.
 
Do you use the USB-C port in the Sony A7RIII? I just watched a video and the guy said to use the Micro USB and not the USB-C!

I do have a Sony USB-C cable
 
Seems to me like they are not building up much at moment in Japan. I think sales of Sony mirrorless have always been on an upward trend.
I am not really talking about quality since as you mentioned initial Sony mirrorless weren't all that good and worst than the first attempts from Canikon.
I wonder if Sony has got their marketing department doing a good job finally. I remember in a-mount days Sony got a lot stick for crap marketing.

It’s natural that sales of Sony mirrorless have been on the upward trend, they’ve kept getting better and have built a brand around mirrorless. It’s obviously they’d be outselling the competition at the moment because the camera is better and they have been building the mirrorless brand for longer.

It’s common knowledge that canikons mirrorless cameras aren’t wonderful unlikely to be outselling Sony, especially when they cost more. Quality comes into it, if Canon or Nikon were better quality than Sony then I’d have bought one of them. Too right their first attempts should be better, they’ve had years longer to do r & d.

I don’t think any of the big camera companies do an amazing job at marketing, they tend to do the bog standard same stuff over and over again.
 
I eventually managed to download the firmware update by switching from Safari to Chrome and using the micro USB cable - everything else just didn't work.
 
I eventually managed to download the firmware update by switching from Safari to Chrome and using the micro USB cable - everything else just didn't work.
Many cables you get with chargers etc only have the 2 power wires inside to save money, these are the only ones to avoid - any full data cable will work.
 
Many cables you get with chargers etc only have the 2 power wires inside to save money, these are the only ones to avoid - any full data cable will work.

I did my 4 x A7III’s with a cable from the pound shop, you don’t get much cheaper than that.
 
I'm going on holiday! We're off to Singapore in August.
Singapore is amazing, it's a melting pot of cultures, lots to see, lots to do and photo opportunities at every turn. Me and the wife love it and will be going back.
 
Can I just ask some advice please:

For those who have updated their A9/A7III/A7III with the 3.0 firmware, is this pretty straightforward to do and is there anything to be aware of that you didn't know before you did it?

I want to update my A7RIII but I cannot find the Sony cable to do the update and I've read that it won't work with some 3rd party cables? Looks like I'll have to buy a Sony one from their website

As said, from windows a random generic USB worked for me and the update process was completely painless. Just took a while to upload the (250MB) update to the camera.
 
It certainly helps only having to half depress the shutter button now on the A7RIII instead of holding down another button - not quite as good as the real time eye-AF of the A9 and A6400 though, but definitely welcome!
 
It’s natural that sales of Sony mirrorless have been on the upward trend, they’ve kept getting better and have built a brand around mirrorless. It’s obviously they’d be outselling the competition at the moment because the camera is better and they have been building the mirrorless brand for longer.

It’s common knowledge that canikons mirrorless cameras aren’t wonderful unlikely to be outselling Sony, especially when they cost more. Quality comes into it, if Canon or Nikon were better quality than Sony then I’d have bought one of them. Too right their first attempts should be better, they’ve had years longer to do r & d.

I don’t think any of the big camera companies do an amazing job at marketing, they tend to do the bog standard same stuff over and over again.

Well it isn't just that. I think Canikons main intention with these bodies was to keep people from leaving them to buy Sony. So I am guessing they wanted to keep their customers and not so much attract people from other brands. I don't know how much they have achieved that.

The early adopters are the people who give any system the initial boost and uptake. Canikon may be lacking here. I am an early adopter kind of person myself. I was there with the early android smartphones decade ago and also with Sony A7 5 years(?) ago. Sony A7 wasn't great by any means but it was exciting. It was the first FF mirrorless and first time I could get a FF body in my jacket pockets with the FE35 (can't do that anymore :( ). Also it was great fun adapting manual lenses and using them the "intended" way on a digital body. Canikons kinda lack that excitement. The RP momentarily caught my attention because I thought I could once again get a body into my jacket but sensor is on level of original A7.
 
Nipped into my local W.E.X on the way past earlier on, they are having an open day today.

Quite a few decent offers on. Discounts on everything Sony made even better by the current cash back offers, all the Sigma Art lenses reduced and all other Sigma lenses 10% off.

Also had some good offers on Fuji and Panasonic.
 
Well it isn't just that. I think Canikons main intention with these bodies was to keep people from leaving them to buy Sony. So I am guessing they wanted to keep their customers and not so much attract people from other brands. I don't know how much they have achieved that.

Canon surely missed a trick not retaining their existing lens mount for their mirrorless cameras, enabling current users a seamless opportunity to switch. Nikon's F mount really needed to be replaced so they can't be blamed, but Canon's isn't old and shouldn't be technically deficient in any way, so requiring that the existing customer base change over seems like madness to me.
 
If they kept the slr mount they'd add bulk and limit the use of other lenses requiring a shorter registration distance, so there's that... plus I suppose we can't know if the slr mount had any limitations for future tech which the new mount fixes.
 
Canon surely missed a trick not retaining their existing lens mount for their mirrorless cameras, enabling current users a seamless opportunity to switch. Nikon's F mount really needed to be replaced so they can't be blamed, but Canon's isn't old and shouldn't be technically deficient in any way, so requiring that the existing customer base change over seems like madness to me.

I assume they did it because they wanted to reduce the flange distance for their mirrorless cameras - giving greater flexibility in lens design (since you can always include a spacer tube to increase the flange distance, as Sigma have done to convert existing designs to E-Mount), and the option to adapt a wider range of lenses to their bodies (or, more likely, to avoid NOT being able to adapt other lenses being highlighted as a disadvantage of their cameras). It also gave them the opportunity to add more control / data pins to the mount, giving increased options in the future.

I think they've done their best to accommodate existing users - bundling the adaptor, which means they can use their existing lenses with no loss of functionality.
Since it's all electronic, all the adaptor has to do is increase the flange distance, and convert between the old and new lens protocols - which Canon should be able to do without any issues, as they control both.
 
Well after selling all my Fuji gear i've now just ordered a A7III with the 28-70 Kit lens and an 85.1.8 to start off with, even if the kit lens isn't that good I can sell it later as the price with and without wasn't that much difference. As I build my lenses up and will probably add the 55.1.8 and Samyang 35 2.8 at a later point. Cant wait to take delivery of it now.
 
Especially only 12 months after their "extraordinary loss".

Are you being serious? Quick internet definition for you:

'An extraordinary item consists of gains or losses included on a company's income statement from events that are unusual and infrequent in nature.'

Doesn't mean extraordinarily high.
 
Are you being serious? Quick internet definition for you:

'An extraordinary item consists of gains or losses included on a company's income statement from events that are unusual and infrequent in nature.'

Doesn't mean extraordinarily high.

I am quoting Nikon and their report, their VERY OWN WORDS, hence the quote. Are you asking me whether Nikon is being serious in their press release? In their own words?
 
I've just picked up a Laowa 15mm lens. I put it on my A9 and got a "lens not detected" type error message. I'm guessing this is normal as it's a manual lens but just want to double check? Also is there a way to get focus assist/peeking working with it?
 
I've just picked up a Laowa 15mm lens. I put it on my A9 and got a "lens not detected" type error message. I'm guessing this is normal as it's a manual lens but just want to double check? Also is there a way to get focus assist/peeking working with it?

Have you got 'Release w/o Lens' turned on? You have to do this the first time you use a manual lens on Sony A7/A9
 
I've just picked up a Laowa 15mm lens. I put it on my A9 and got a "lens not detected" type error message. I'm guessing this is normal as it's a manual lens but just want to double check? Also is there a way to get focus assist/peeking working with it?

You just need to enable release without lens and turn on peeking.
 
TBH it doesn't surprise me, the A7III is one of the best bang for buck new cameras on the market imo. The trouble with the Canikons is that they've both released something that is behind the current market, and if starting out on a new system then surely you'd buy the best (ergonomics etc aside). Maybe Nikon's firmware update in 2 weeks will bring the Z's closer to Sony but who knows. I can't see frame rate being improved from 5.5fps if you want to see a realtime view, even if they are adding AE changes to the faster frame rates.

I am surprised EOS R/P outsells Z6.
It's a Canon and 'everyone' knows Canon are the best :rolleyes:;)
 
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